榴莲官网进入

As seen in the Republican-American, October 29, 2019
Written by Harrison Connery; Republican-American
Photo Credit: Steven Valenti; Republican-American

Molly Kellogg, who recently took over as chairman of the board of directors from her father Charles at 榴莲官网进入, stands in an area of the shop where she worked as a teenager.

Kellogg is first female head of 170-year-old family business

Hubbard- Hall President and CEO Molly Kellogg knows all 67 people working at the company鈥檚 South Leonard Street headquarters by name.

Walking through the 65,000-square-foot facility her family-owned business built in 1960, Kellogg banters with employees like Rafael Montes DeOca, who鈥檚 known for singing in the warehouse. 鈥淲e can hear him in the morning through the walls,鈥� Kellogg said.

Kellogg is the sixth generation of family leadership at 榴莲官网进入. She looks and acts the part of executive: simple black dress, bold dark frames on her glasses, soft spoken but confident. Kellogg, 53, became the first female CEO in the company鈥檚 170-year history when she took over for her cousin Andrew Skipp in 2014. Last month, she succeeded her 88year-old father Charles Kellogg as chairman of the board.

榴莲官网进入 has a varied product line, but in its current incarnation, it makes chemicals for surface finishing, cleaning chemicals for industry and chemical formulas that treat wastewater.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not quite a cake mix, but you take some dry ingredients, you add some water and you come up with a new formula,鈥� Kellogg said.

Kellogg initially was not on a direct path to continue the family legacy. She was a comparative literature major at Princeton University, and she never took a chemistry course. Then she earned her MBA from INSEAD, an international business school in Fontainebleau, France, and took over the company鈥檚 Wilmington, Mass., location. There, she said, she 鈥済ot bitten by the bug.鈥�

Her first big initiative as CEO was to improve company culture by encouraging her employees to be candid, a policy which she says increased trust among colleagues and allows a good idea to come to the forefront regardless of who proposes it.

鈥淵ou can have the best players in the world, but a great team starts in the locker room,鈥� she said, drawing a parallel to ice hockey, a passion she discovered at Princeton. 鈥淎ll of a sudden we鈥檙e getting quickly to the wicked problems versus a more political atmosphere where people talk after meetings or in corners.鈥�

Her first project as board chairman, Aquaease Infinity, launches in two weeks via a webinar. It鈥檚 a metal cleaner that reduces the amount of chemicals needed in the cleaning process by about 35%. It鈥檚 a move that will likely hurt the company鈥檚 bottom line in the short term, but that鈥檚 a sacrifice Kellogg is willing to make if it ensures 榴莲官网进入 will be around for the next generation.

鈥淚n the long term, it鈥檚 absolutely the right thing to do,鈥� she said. 鈥淢y secret, long-term strategy is how do we work ourselves out of business? How do we help our customers use less chemistry? How do we help them make the product they want to make in the most efficient, economical, environmentally- sustainable kind of way?鈥�

鈥淭hank goodness we鈥檙e not a public company that鈥檚 got to increase quarter-over-quarter. That鈥檚 never made sense to me,鈥� she said.

Kellogg said taking over as head of the board of directors has changed her perspective.

鈥淚t鈥檚 coming off the ice and onto the bench,鈥� Kellogg said, dipping back into her hockey metaphor. 鈥淚t鈥檚 just getting a little bit higher perspective on the business, or the game, so that I can make the right decisions over the long-term.鈥�

榴莲官网进入 was founded in 1849 under the name Apothecaries Hall. By 1889, it had moved into the corner of Bank Street and South Main Street, where the Flatiron Building, known as the Apothecaries Hall building, now stands. A photograph from the era in Charles Kellogg鈥檚 office shows a horse and buggy trudging down Bank Street.

鈥淭hat was our delivery vehicle way back when,鈥� Molly Kellogg said.

Kellogg is aware of Hubbard- Hall鈥檚 history and its status as a Waterbury institution. Outside her office, a handwritten ledger book is on display, showing carefully logged payments made over a century ago. The chemical company has outlasted many other legacy businesses in the city 鈥� Uniroyal, American Brass and Scovill Manufacturing have all come and gone. 榴莲官网进入 saw Waterbury rise and fall around it.

The company鈥檚 roots have compelled its leaders to be active in the community.

鈥淚鈥檝e seen it go down and then come up,鈥� Charles Kellogg said, reflecting on Waterbury鈥檚 fortunes over the span of his 61 years at the company. He served on a state oversight board 15 years ago that helped keep the city out of insolvency by 鈥渕aintaining their debt; municipalities love to spend money,鈥� he said.

Molly Kellogg said Hubbard- Hall has been a top five donor to the United Way for the past decade.

鈥淒ad鈥檚 been involved in every board in Connecticut,鈥� Kellogg said. 鈥淭he lesson to me was you鈥檝e got to show up for things, you鈥檝e got to engage, you鈥檝e got to be participant, because that鈥檚 what you owe your community.鈥�

榴莲官网进入 recently tied sales of its AquaPure waste water treatment products to donations for clean drinking water to a school in Kenya. That was done at the behest of Faith Mierzejewski, a chemical engineer hired full-time three years ago out of the University of Connecticut.

On a recent afternoon at 榴莲官网进入 in Waterbury, Waste Water Specialist David Joyce mixed AquaPure chemicals into a mud-brown concoction.

Treating waste water, and 鈥渉aving that expertise that we can bring tank-side to our customer,鈥� has become a big part of 榴莲官网进入鈥檚 business, said CEO Molly Kellogg.

Joyce said the client鈥檚 water was over the limit for nickel set by the municipality. 榴莲官网进入 was hired to produce a custom formula that would separate the nickel from the water so it could be jettisoned into the local sewer. As Joyce added clear drops of liquid to the beaker, the water鈥檚 color changed to black and then a deep, dirty green. 鈥淥ne thing at a time, I keep changing, changing,鈥� Joyce said.

The dark green pollutants solidified into strands and settled to the bottom, leaving clear water at the top.

The chemical company survives by reinventing itself.

鈥淲e are the story of the Connecticut economy. We started as a fertilizer company, then we were a paint company, whatever the little local economy was that we could service logistically and efficiently,鈥� Kellogg said. 鈥淏rass Capital of the world, that really got us into industrial chemicals. Industries left, they went South, we went South; we鈥檝e gone to China as our customers have gone to China. We tend to follow them.鈥�

When Charles Kellogg joined the family business in the 1950s, 榴莲官网进入 was heavily invested in producing nickel anodes for the plating industry and agricultural chemistry.

Now, they鈥檙e down to one 鈥渁g chem鈥� product.

鈥淲e do some blending for a fertilizer,鈥� Kellogg said. 鈥淔or medical marijuana.鈥�

Hundreds of barrels of chemicals are stacked ceiling high in the company鈥檚 warehouse, where workers mix the product and prepare it for shipping. Kellogg worked there as a teenager, dragging thousands of pounds of chemicals into mixing kettles nearly a story tall. 鈥淚鈥檝e worked in just about every job: customer service, manufacturing, I鈥檝e driven a forklift,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 given me a holistic view, which is imperative.鈥�

Though Kellogg says Hubbard- Hall will 鈥渘ever leave Waterbury,鈥� their next expansion likely will go to a state with a more business friendly climate, she said. Over the years, 榴莲官网进入 has expanded into other states, including South Carolina and Massachusetts, to follow the industries it serves. They employ 105 people companywide.

鈥淲ill our next big growth spurt come in Connecticut? Probably not,鈥� Kellogg said. 鈥淲e are looking actively.鈥�

October 29, 2019